Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75650 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75650 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
But then the thought is gone as quickly as it came, and I am hit with a stab of disappointment. “I will return soon,” I tell her, and throw on my cape, heading out of the cave.
Once outside, I breathe deeply of the crisp air. It is cool today, but there is no snow. The landscape is white and undisturbed, nothing but rolling hills of fresh snow covering the scrubby trees that struggle toward the sunlight. I should be pleased that I have had a memory of Stay-see. I am pleased, but I am also worried at how quickly it disappeared from my mind again. Even now, I try to recall what it was, but my mind is blank. What if I do not remember it ever again?
Worse…what if I continue to forget things? What if the memories that Stay-see is telling me about do not stick? What if I do not remember this day, either? What if my mind is permanently like a woven container with a hole at the bottom? The thought makes me sick at heart. Stay-see deserves a mate with a whole mind, not one with a leaky basket.
Troubled, I jog out to the distant trees. I will get Stay-see a new not-potato, and she will make me more tasty treats and smile and tell me stories. I will not think about my mind or baskets. Not today. I am going to enjoy today.
As I head to the trees, I see tracks in the snow, and my steps slow. I pull out my hunting knife and carry it at the ready, but there is no movement; whatever was here before is long gone. I examine the tracks left behind; the snow is so deep that they are little more than drag marks, so it is impossible to tell what creature made them. Dvisti, perhaps. Or a large snow cat. When I get to the trees, though, I see even more tracks. They circle around the copse of trees and then head off over a ridge.
I rub my jaw, frowning at the sight.
This is where the cache of frozen meat is kept. The cache is at the base of one of the thin, pink trees, and several notches are in the slick, spongy bark. The notches tell the hunters how many kills are left inside the cache, and a notch is marked through again if something is taken from the cache. It is so a starving hunter does not waste his time digging for meat that is not there. I run my hand over the tree, ignoring the sticky feel of it. Notches run down the length of the bark, but most of them are double-notched, indicating that the cache is nearly empty. I count the notches at the top that indicate meat—four of them. A good cache has twenty or more.
But the snow here is thickly churned.
I do not like this.
I sniff the air, but there is no scent of bad meat or any other animal. No one would know this cache is here except for another hunter. I look around, turning, but there is no one to be seen. I run my fingers over the bark again, and the last notch is one that I made yesterday, sticky and fresh. If a hunter was here, he did not take food from the cache.
Just a wandering animal, then. All the same, I dig up a frozen dvisti and mark it off of the tree. It is the largest kill in the cache, and far more than Stay-see and I can eat by ourselves, but the thought of leaving the meat makes me uneasy. We will smoke the extra and store it, I decide.
When I return to the cave, Stay-see looks surprised at the amount of meat I have brought, but does not complain. We move the fire to the front of the cave, remove the screen, and proceed to smoke haunch after haunch. We work as a team, and Stay-see tells me stories of when Pacy was in her belly. The time passes pleasurably, and Stay-see even manages to make me a few of the meat pies before Pacy wakes up and demands her attention.
By the time the suns go down, the meat has been smoked but is not dry enough to serve as trail rations. I will smoke it again in the morning to dry it out so it can be stored easily. We move the fire back to the pit, return the privacy screen to its spot, and settle in for the night.
Stay-see sniffs her braid and wrinkles her nose. “I smell like smoke and sweat.”
She does. I do as well. I do not mind her scent, though. I could happily bury my nose in her cunt and inhale her muskiness for days on end. “Do you want to bathe? I can get snow and we can melt some.”